Invoking the Psychosphere

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A Process-Eon Experiment in CyberRitual

by Philip H. Farber ([email protected])

The Internet is growing rapidly, and every kind of possibility is

making itself manifest. On one hand, the proliferation of gossip,

advertising and mass media in cyberspace is a force that

increases the pressures of cultural conditioning, distracting the

average Internaut away from hir True Will or real potential. On

the other hand, the structure and resources of the 'net may

provide some tools to counteract those distractions and enable

the cyber-magickian to engage in self-directed deprogramming and

re-conditioning. I suggest the following as an initiation into

the tools and metaphors of cyber-ritual.

When we conference in cyberspace, the group of people meeting in

one room or channel creates a web or network that spans a portion

of the planetary surface. Thus it is a web of points that

suggests a sphere. This semi-spherical web can fill a place in

our ritual analogous to the circle of offline ritual. The web

represents a microcosm of the entire Internet and the human minds

operating it. This macrocosm of minds, machines and linking

technology is the Psychosphere. At present the Psychosphere is a

more or less random accretion of information, and a vast web that

is busy with activity that is largely uncoordinated and

unfocused. The Psychosphere is like a human mind that has had no

glimmer of its own Will, or even its own existence, merely

reacting and responding to the glittering glut of data.

In the microcosmic webs of our conference room rituals, we can

isolate and invoke qualities, deities and mythologies just as the

offline magickian fills hir circle and mind with a specific

invocation. My hypothesis is that such invocation can produce

effects of synchronicity that can occur within the matrix of the

Psychosphere. Remember that the Psychosphere includes the minds

of humans that interact with it, and synchronistic effects may

seem to come from individual humans, or from the Psychosphere at

large. One may further speculate that if enough groups are

invoking a great enough variety of qualities, the synchronistic

effects may serve the purpose of integrating these qualities into

the Psychosphere, providing the total entity with a balanced and

holistic content and action. Taking that speculation even

farther, each group may wake the "intelligence" of whatever

quality they invoke within the Psychosphere, and enough groups

working on enough kinds of qualities may serve to wake the

totality of the Psychosphere. As the individual parts of the

Psychosphere, human minds and ritual groups, awaken to their own

True Will, perhaps the Psychosphere itself can find its own Will.

A Simple Method of Invocation

0. Isolate your conference area within the Psychosphere. That is,

shut off outside messages from non-participants, by whatever

means is necessary. Banish non-participants from the conference

area. Each individual can equally banish the environment of their

non-cyber location by banishing non-participants, turning off any

potential distractions such as television, stereo or telephone.

1. Each participant changes the setting on their monitor, if

possible, in some agreed-upon way, for instance, turning the

contrast up or down, making the image brighter or darker than it

normally is.

2. Each participant acknowledges their connection to the web by

typing an X on the common screen. When each participant has

completed this, the invocation proper can begin. This can be

varied to achieve a cyclic effect somewhat analogous to

circumambulation in offline ritual. That is, taking it

alphabetically by screen name (or whatever sequence the group

chooses beforehand to do this) each person can type their X in

sequence, and repeat the sequence in rotation.

3. The group breaks up into smaller units of two. Each member of

the smaller unit takes a turn projecting the quality that has

been chosen for the invocation at each other, as follows:

a) The person projecting first imagines distinct sensory

details of the quality to be projected. If that quality is,

for instance, Prosperity, then that person thinks about what

prosperity might look like in hir own life, what it might

sound like, what it might feel like, what it might taste or

smell like. As s/he achieves a pure mental state of each

sensory mode, s/he can send a private message to hir partner

with that sensory mode, imagining or experiencing that s/he

is projecting that sensory quality through the screen to hir

partner at the same time. For instance, s/he might type "See

Prosperity", "Hear Prosperity", "Feel Prosperity", etc.

Finally, when all sensory modes have been projected, s/he

types just the key word, for instance, "Prosperity". During

this, the partner remains receptive and imagines or

experiences that s/he is receiving these qualities from hir

partner. The partners then switch roles and repeat.

b) A variant on this uses polarities to intensify the

experience. If the quality chosen is one that can easily be

split into a pair of opposites, then the partners take turns

projecting those opposing qualities at each other. For

instance, if the ancient god Pan is being invoked, then the

polarity of "All-Devourer" and "All-Begetter" can be used.

In this, one partner projects the experiences of devouring,

running through the sensory modes as in (a). Then the other

partner projects devouring. Then the first projects

begetting, and so on, so that each partner has projected and

received each polar quality. Then the entire experience

"Pan" is projected first by one partner, then by the other.

4. The group then reconvenes and each participant projects that

quality that they have isolated into the common conference,

typing that keyword on the common screen and imagining or

experiencing that quality flowing and imbuing the entire

microcosmic web that the participants have created.

5. This completed, each participant again types an X, in sequence

if a sequence has been used the first time.

6. Participants return their monitor settings to their usual

mode. The working is then closed and the conference area should

be vacated immediately. Follow-up discussion can occur elsewhere.

7. The group may choose to upload a log of the ritual to a

central place for reference. Individual participants may wish to

add their own reactions and descriptions, in separate files, to

the same archive. In this way, groups can review past rituals and

decide what was effective and what was not, and thereby develop

this kind of ritual.

This suggests a very basic method of working with the

Psychosphere. More complex or more elegant methods are certainly

possible with this paradigm. Working a series of these rituals

through a microcosmic system such as qabala, tarot or I Ching may

provide a balanced and complete end result for the participants,

and a balanced offering to the Psychosphere. Devotees of pre-

existing traditions may choose to add their own quality or

mythology to the Psychosphere. That is, a worshipper of Shiva

may, in effect, become a priest of Shiva in cyberspace, a

mediator of the Shiva-nature of the Psychosphere.

Permission is granted for this document to be distributed or

reprinted freely, as long as it remains intact in its entirety,

including these lines.

The Process Whebb Site: http://process.org/

Paradigm Web Site: http://members.aol.com/para93/paradgm.htm